The Movie Forums Top 100 Comedies Countdown

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Chaplin isn't funny and I haven't seen Hot Fuzz.
Ditto and quoted for truth.

Another big catch up despite only not being around for a couple of days and, as usual, the top tier comedies continue to mostly bore me because that's what comedy films usually do. But, just because it happened, I'll mention that This Is Spinal Tap was my #1. You knew it would be, I knew it was. There's no surprise here with the exception that it didn't even make the top 10. What?

Suddenly I'm energised. Suddenly I want to right this terrible wrong but, as I know only too well, I'm just pissing into the wind at this point. When Black Dynamite actually made the list I thought things had changed, and they have, just not as much as I'd hoped. Once more, you manage to disappoint me even when I expect so little from you.
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I've said this before, but I'll repeat it:

There is no movie I would use as a litmus test for whether I like someone. None at all...

...but if I had to pick one, it would be The Princess Bride. I think it's the single-best movie for determining how compatible I would be with someone in general interactions.
I just realized you quoted that post like it was a perfectly acceptable thing to say



Alright, @Diehl40 is here. Let's get this party started....
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The Top Ten MOFO Favorite Comedies

We have come to the top ten Mofo Comedy favorites. I will reveal one film a day to finish the countdown. Hopefully we will have a surprise or two in the final ten.





242 points, 17 lists
Blazing Saddles
Director

Mel Brooks, 1974

Starring

Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, David Huddleston


#10






Not a huge fan of Blazing Saddles personally but it has its moments and absolutely no surprise whatsoever to see it make Top Ten here.





Blazing Saddles was #33 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1970s and #21 on the MoFo Top 100 Westerns. It also placed at #6 on the AFI's 100 Years, 100 Laughs list. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Editing (The Towering Inferno won), Best Original Song for the opening theme (losing to "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno), and Madeline Kahn for Best Supporting Actress (screen legend Ingrid Bergman won for Murder on the Orient Express).

Kahn had been nominated the year before in the same category for Paper Moon, losing to young co-star Tatum O'Neal. They were the only two Oscar nominations in Kahn's career.



Welcome to the human race...
It's good, but I didn't vote for it. Undecided as to whether or not I prefer it to the other Brooks film that will undoubtedly crack the top ten.
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Blazing Saddles is in the bottom half of Brooks filmography for me, but it absolutely has its moments and holds an incredibly fast pace of comedy throughout. I''m glad to see that Brooks hasn't lost his relevance and will have two films in the top ten. (I had two on my list as well)

1. History of the World: Part 1
2.Young Frankenstien
3.High Anxiety
4.Spaceballs
5.Robin Hood: Men In Tights
6.Blazing Saddles
7.The Twelve Chairs
8.Silent Movie
9. The Producers
10. To Be or Not to Be
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Blazing Saddles was also my #10, apparently confirming my absolutely nailed-on taste. What can one say about this film? It's funny! It has Madeline Kahn! It has that word! For my money, the scene where Cleavon Little holds himself hostage is the highlight of the film, but I won't be mad if others prefer any of the many other wonderful bits.



I forgot the opening line.
Out of those ranked 101 to 120, I nearly voted for My Man Godfrey, but it was a late cut. I assumed it wouldn't make it, even with my help - but I think I was wrong. It seems that if I had of voted for it, it would have made it! Ooops.

Okay, here we go! Top 10!

Blazing Saddles was my #17, and instead of a spoof of a James Bond movie, Zombie flicks, Star Trek or Disaster movies it's the Westerns with this. It's pretty lowbrow stuff - I remember watching a comedy once where the faux pas a person makes at a dinner amongst upper class intellectual snobs was, when they started talking about films he shouts out about how good Blazing Saddles is. So obviously, in some quarters, the film is looked down upon. But a successful film is a successful film, and this one is genuinely funny and quite timeless - to make such a movie requires some filmmaking skill, and a deep knowledge and love of the Western genre. So I'd say a person would be a little too snooty to look down their nose at this. Once again, Mel Brooks utilized the talents of Gene Wilder, whom I loved - and I believe Richard Pryor was meant to play the black sheriff, but something went wrong. That's how the story goes anyway. This is loved by many - and that includes me. The first time I watched it I was doubled over. It just keeps impressing me, because when I watched it recently I was just as carried away by it's frenzied and ridiculous sense of what's comedic. Great comedy - deserved a top 10 finish.

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Films I've seen : 73˝
Films that have been on my radar : 15˝
Films I've never even heard of : 2

Films from my list : 14

#10 - My #17 - Blazing Saddles - (1974)
#12 - My #19 - Hot Fuzz - (2007)
#13 - My #2 - This is Spinal Tap - (1984)
#14 - My #5 - Galaxy Quest - (1999)
#15 - My #6 - Shaun of the Dead - (2004)
#17 - My #24 - The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! - (1988)
#20 - My #12 - Life of Brian - (1979)
#24 - My #18 - The Jerk - (1979)
#30 - My #10 - What We Do in the Shadows - (2014)
#34 - My #9 - Back to the Future - (1985)
#62 - My #13 - The In-Laws - (1979)
#65 - My #21 - Black Dynamite - (2009)
#82 - My #8 - The Producers - (1967)
One pointer - Brewster McCloud (1970)
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I did not vote for this 1974 Mel Brooks effort.

Blazing Saddles is clearly an essential in the pantheon of cinematic comedy and rightfully sits near the top of the MoFo hivemind. It does have some terrific fun spoofing the Western genre, starting with the glorious opening theme. But it is the raunchy, anything-for-a-joke sensibility that makes it a classic. Here was my brief write-up from the MoFo Top 100 Westerns countdown...

The campfire scene. It was a logical extension of the fact that you always see cowboys eating beans around the campfire or from the wagon train. Digestive health has not changed significantly so it stands to reason that if you and I get gassy when we eat ‘em that means there had to be plenty of farting going on in the Old West. But we never heard John Wayne or Walter Brennan let one rip. That joke kind of tells one all one needs to know about the level of humor and spoofing going on by Mel Brooks and company in Blazing Saddles. From the moment THE Frankie Laine, who crooned the title songs for big screen oaters like Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and 3:10 to Yuma and small screeners like ”Rawhide”, bellows out, “He rode a blazing saddle….” You know you are in for some fun. With a legendarily irreverent script by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg, and Richard Pryor and a cast led by Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, and Slim Pickens Blazing Saddles is a rapid fire laugh machine. Some of the humor seems to come straight from Looney Tunes, some more from Pryor’s nightclub act, with references to everything from High Noon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Rio Bravo to The Blue Angel and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It is the raunchy, R-rated comedy that gave birth to them all. Sheriff Bart, The Waco Kid, Lili von Shtüpp, Hedley Lamarr, Mongo, Taggart, Governor Le Petomane, and all the Johnsons of Rock Ridge got the support of seventeen MoFos including two first place votes, a second place, a fifth, three seventh, two eighth, and a ninth placer. What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin’ on here?

Even though at most these two titles are going to be separated by nine spots this time, I would still expect Young Frankenstein to finish higher [than Blazing Saddles].
Werd.



I have seen six Brooks features I think. I consider myself not a fan, but I think that’s just in comparison to the cinephiles that love his stuff. I find some humor in his stuff, that said Blazing Saddles is probably second to last to Men In Tights which I haven’t seen since it came out.
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I watched Blazing Saddles recently and I really enjoyed it. Not enough for it to make my ballot though (I went with a different Mel Brooks film which will undoubtedly make it higher).
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I have not seen Blazing Saddles since I was a kid (and I think it was always on TV, which makes me wonder how much I wouldn't recognize if I watched it today).


I remember it being part of the Mel Brooks movies I liked, but at the time, up until Men in Tights, I had liked them all.


When my friends did their Mel Brooks marathon, I really wish they had included this one so I could have revisited it (did I really need to revisit Men in Tights or be exposed to Dracula Dead and Loving It?), as such, Saddles is in that weird space of I watched it a number of times as a kid that if I were to watch it now, a lot would come back to me, but it's hazy enough, I don't really remember it.


I seem to recall liking Young Frankenstein more at that age, but I also didn't like westerns as a kid, and well, there was presumably a lot more humor in Saddles that probably flew over my head.


When I tally up my stats on seen/not seen, I wonder if I need to break out the, "yeah, but it's been so long I only vaguely remember it."



A system of cells interlinked
I saw Cleavon Little in an episode of The Rockford Files last week.

Meanwhile, Blazing Saddles is pretty funny stuff, but did not make my ballot...
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